How do you identify?

Not everyone may be aware that even a uniformed police officer, if requested, is obliged to identify him/herself by displaying his/her Warrant Card.  The uniform, itself, is insufficient.  This is quite understandable.  After all, I can go to any major Fancy Dress Outfitter and hire a 'uniform' that will deceive all but the sharpest-eyed member of the general public.  Indeed, there was a case in (I think!) Aberdeen not so very long ago in which a male dancer who wore just such a uniform was arrested for the serious offence of impersonating a police officer.  He was, eventually, acquitted, but it was because his 'uniform' was so close to the real thing that he was charged with the offence in the first place.

Of course masquerading as someone else is not confined to people wearing a particular uniform - be it a police officer, a nurse, or whatever.  There are, sadly, all too many who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ who might be said to be in a similar boat!  They regularly attend a worship service.  They have a Bible prominently displayed in their homes.  They use all of the appropriate jargon when speaking with others who make the same claim.  But it's all a false uniform; a charade; blatant hypocrisy.

Only a Warrant Card can assure me that the person in uniform who may be asking me where I am going; what I am doing; or for personal details; is the genuine article.  So what is the "Warrant Card" for the genuine disciple of Jesus? 

May I suggest that Peter sums it up nicely in his first letter to the early church?  In what we now refer to as ch.1 and vs.15-16, he writes "... as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'"(RSV).  And 'holy' does not refer to being "unusually good", but to being different.

Words, you see, are cheap.  My vocal cords work well; I have a good command of the English language; and so I am able to say anything, make any claim.  But merely saying that I am a film star doesn't make me one.  A very short time watching me would soon convince anyone that such a claim was false!

So, if I claim to be a follower of Jesus, don't just take my word for it - that's like accepting a uniform at face value!  Watch me; listen to me; see if there is anything different about me that marks me out as His.  That's my spiritual Warrant Card - and the only real proof that my claim is valid; that I'm the genuine article!